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Southwood Prize
The British Ecological Society awards an annual prize to the best paper by a young author in each of the Society's journals. The Journal of Applied Ecology awards the Southwood Prize in memory of Prof. Sir Richard Southwood. The winner is selected by the Editors of Journal of Applied Ecology at the end of each year and an announcement is made early in the New Year following.
If the first author of the paper considers that they are eligible for this award when their manuscript is accepted for publication then they are invited to nominate themselves for this award. Those nominated are typically under 30 years old and in the early stages of their research career. Nominations are accepted from authors slightly older where their careers in ecology have been interrupted or have developed later.
In addition to a cash award, the winner of the Southwood Prize receives a one year subscription to the journal, free of charge, and is eligible for financial support towards attending the BES Annual Meeting where they are invited to give a short presentation on their paper.
Winner of the Southwood Prize 2009
Christian Kerbiriou
The 2009 Southwood Prize is awarded to Christian Keribiriou for his co-paper ‘Tourism in protected areas can threaten wild populations: from individual response to population viability of the chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax' (Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 46, pp. 657-665).
The paper combines careful observation with stochastic modelling to demonstrate that relatively minor disturbance from tourism has dramatic effects on population viability, even when breeding individuals are not directly affected. In addition to its important contribution to protected area management, the paper demonstrates that the full impact of tourism may be overlooked, with direct consequences for the assessment of sustainable levels of human disturbance in national parks, nature reserves and other protected areas. Few studies have quantified the link between ultimate factors of species decline, stochastic processes and extinction risk for a given population or species. By demonstrating how tourism pressure is related both to individual response and population dynamics in an endangered species, this study takes a significant step forward.
Christian Keribiriou worked as a conservation practitioner in the National Regional Park of Amorique in France where he was involved in monitoring and survey work, and raising public awareness of environmental issues. During this time, he completed his PhD with the Museum of Paris on the population viability of chough on the protected island of Ouessant off the west coast of Brittany, France. He went on to do postdoctoral research working on the development of a national biodiversity monitoring scheme, focusing particularly on bat monitoring. In June 2009, he moved to a permanent position as a Lecturer at Paris University where he teaches ecology and statistics. His research continues to focus on population viability analyses through interdisciplinary approaches. Christian is a worthy recipient of the Southwood Prize for 2009 and we wish him every success in his academic career.
Winner of the Southwood Prize 2008
Tiziana Lembo and Katie Hampson
The 2008 Southwood Prize is awarded jointly to Tiziana Lembo and Katie Hampson for their paper 'Exploring reservoir dynamics: a case study of rabies in the Serengeti Ecosystem' ( Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 45, pp. 1246–1257). The paper combines long-term data and modelling to demonstrate that the reservoir for rabies in the Serengeti is a multi-host community where domestic dogs are the only population necessary for persistence but wild carnivores contribute as non-maintenance populations. In addition to making a significant contribution to understanding the dynamics of multi-host diseases, the work has also had a major impact on management policy, suggesting that control strategies that target domestic dogs should have the greatest impact on reducing risk of infection to humans, livestock and wildlife. The paper is exemplary in combining academic rigour with management relevance and the authors are worthy joint recipients of the 2008 Southwood Prize.
Tiziana Lembo's PhD, based at the University of Edinburgh, focussed on the identification of reservoirs for rabies and canine distemper virus in the Serengeti. The study posed several major challenges relating to the complex and elusive problem of reservoir identification for pathogens infecting multiple host species, which Tiziana successfully addressed using a suite of phylogenetic and epidemiological approaches. Tiziana followed her PhD with a BBSRC fellowship on bovine tuberculosis in Tanzania, and currently holds a joint position as a post-doctoral fellow at Lincoln Park Zoo (USA) and the University of Glasgow.
Katie Hampson's PhD from Princeton University focussed on understanding the transmission dynamics of rabies in the Serengeti. During this study, she pioneered the use of contact-tracing methodology and applied a range of quantitative methods for elucidating the epidemiology of rabies, generating invaluable information on the infection parameters and transmission patterns of rabies in domestic animals, human, and wildlife hosts. Katie has developed these approaches further as part of her post-doctoral fellowship from the Wellcome Trust which is currently held at the University of Sheffield.
The Journal of Applied Ecology published a number of excellent papers by young authors during 2008 and we should also like to mention the contribution from Lian Pin Koh entitled 'Can oil palm plantations be made more hospitable for forest butterflies and birds?' ( Journal of Applied Ecology, Vol. 45, pp. 1002–1009). The Editors thought this was a very important and timely contribution from a young author and offer their congratulations for a well-executed piece of work.
Winner of the Southwood Prize 2007
Jonathan N. Pauli
The 2007 Southwood Prize is awarded to Jonathan N. Pauli for his co-paper with Steven W. Buskirk 'Risk-disturbance overrides density dependence in a hunted colonial rodent, the black-tailed prairie dog Cynomys ludovicianus' (Journal of Applied Ecology, Volume 44, pp. 1219-1230).
This paper is exemplary in its use of a carefully designed empirical study to address an important issue in applied ecology, within a very clear theoretical framework. In the review process it was identified as extremely well written, with clear management relevance and as making a strong contribution to general theory about the effects of hunting disturbance on colonial species. The study results were very interesting, demonstrating the importance of indirect effects of hunting on vital rates, and showing that these effects (principally reduced fecundity in succeeding years) swamped any potential positive compensatory effect of hunting on population growth rate. Jonathan Pauli is a very worthy recipient of the Southwood prize for 2007, and we congratulate him on this excellent piece of work.
Jonathan is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology at the University of Wyoming. For his dissertation research, he is investigating the population dynamics, structure, and dispersal capabilities of American martens on islands off northwestern North America. He received his MSc in Zoology and Physiology from the University of Wyoming, where he studied the effects of plague and recreational shooting on black-tailed prairie dog biology. He received his BSc at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
In 2007, the Journal of Applied Ecology published a number of papers by young authors and we should also like to mention the contribution by Robert Schick with Steven Lindley for ‘Directed connectivity among fish populations in a riverine network' (Volume 44, pp. 1116-1126). The editors felt this was an important paper by a young author and offer their congratulations on a well-executed piece of
research.
